This late Jacobean costume history information consists of Pages 341-355 of the chapter on the
lower mid 17th century dress in the 24 YEAR REIGN era of Charles the First 1625
- 1649 and taken from English Costume by Dion Clayton Calthrop.
The 36 page section consists of a text copy of the book ENGLISH
COSTUME PAINTED & DESCRIBED BY DION CLAYTON CALTHROP. Visuals,
drawings and painted fashion plates in the book have a charm of their own and are
shown amid the text. The book covers both male and female dress history of
over 700 years spanning the era 1066-1830.
This page is about dress in
the reign of the Stuart King, Charles I 1625-1649.
For the Introduction to this book see this
introduction written by Dion Clayton Calthrop. I have adjusted
the images so they can be used for colouring
worksheets where pupils add some costume/society facts. My comments are in italics.
CHARLES THE FIRST
Reigned twenty-four years: 1625-1649.
Born 1600 Married 1625, Henrietta of France.
THE MEN
This surely is the age of elegance, if one may trust such an elegant
and graceful mind as had Vandyck. In all the wonderful gallery of
portraits he has left, these silvery graceful people pose in garments of
ease.
The main thing that I must do is to show how, gradually, the stiff
Jacobean dress became unfrozen from its clutch upon the human form, how
whalebones in men's jackets melted away, breeches no longer swelled
themselves with rags and bran, collars fell down, and shirts
lounged through great open spaces in the sleeves.
It was the time of an immaculate carelessness; the hair was free, or
seemed free, to droop in languid tresses on men's shoulders, curl at
pretty will on men's foreheads. Shirts were left open at the neck,
breeches were loosed at the knee. Do I revile the time if I say that the
men had an air, a certain supercilious air, of being dukes disguised as
art students?
We know, all of us, the Vandyck beard, the Carolean moustache brushed
away from the lips; we know Lord Pembroke's tousled - carefully
tousled - hair; Kiligrew's elegant locks.
From the head to the neck is but a step - a sad step in this
reign - and here we find our friend the ruff utterly tamed; 'pickadillies,
now out of request,' writes one, tamed into the falling band, the Vandyck collar,
which form of neck-dress has never left the necks and
shoulders of our modern youthful prodigies; indeed, at one time, no
youthful genius dare be without one.
The variations of this collar are
too well known; of such lace as edged them and of the manner of their
tying, it would waste time to tell, except that in some instances the
strings are secured by a ring.
Such a change has come over the doublet as to make it hardly the same
garment; the little slashes have become two or three wide cuts, the
sleeves are wide and loose with, as a rule, one big opening on the
inside of the arm, with this opening embroidered round.
The Cuffs
The cuffs are
like little collars, turned back with point-lace edges.
The actual cut
of the doublet has not altered a great deal, the ordinary run of doublet
has the pointed front, it is tied round the waist with a little
narrow sash; but there has arrived a new jacket, cut round, left open
from the middle of the breast, sometimes cut so short as to show the
shirt below bulged out over the breeches. Sometimes you will see one of
these new short jackets with a slit in the back, and under this the man
will be wearing the round trunks of his father's time.
The breeches are mostly in two classes - the long breeches the shape of
bellows, tied at the knee with a number of points or a bunch of coloured
ribbons; or the breeches cut the same width all the way down,
loose at the knee and there ornamented with a row of points (ribbons
tied in bows with tags on them).
A new method of ornamentation was this notion of coloured ribbons in
bunches, on the breeches, in front, at the sides, at the knees - almost
anywhere - and also upon the coats.
For some time the older fashioned short round cape or cloak prevailed,
but later, large silk cloaks used as wraps thrown across the shoulders
were used as well. The other cloaks had straps, like the modern golf
cape, by which the cloak might be allowed to fall from the shoulders.
Boots
A custom arrived of wearing boots more frequently, and there was the
tall, square-toed, high-heeled boot, fitting up the leg to just below
the knee, without a turnover; the stiff, thick leather, blacking boot
with broad, stiff tops, also not turned back; and there was also the
result of the extraordinary melting, crumpled dismissal of all previous
stiffness, whereby the old tall boot drooped down until it turned over
and fell into a wide cup, all creases and wrinkles, nearly over the
foot, while across the instep was a wide, shaped flap of leather.
This
last falling boot-top was turned in all manner of ways by those
who cared to give thought to it.
Ω
The insides of the tops of these boots were lined with lace or silk,
and the dandy turned them down to give full show to the lining - this
turning of broad tops was such an inconvenience that he was forced to
use a straddled walk when he wore his boots thus.
He has wrapped his blue cloak over his arm, a usual method of carrying
the cloak. He is simply dressed, without bunches of ribbons or points.
Canes were carried with gold, silver, or bone heads, and were ornamented
further by bunches of ribbon.
Coming again to the head, we find ribbon also in use to tie up locks of
hair; delicate shades of ribbon belonging to some fair lady were used to
tie up locks to show delicate shades of love. Some men wore two long
love-locks on either side of the face, others wore two
elaborately-curled locks on one side only.
The hats, as the drawings will show, are broad in the brim and of an
average height in the crown, but a dandy, here and there, wore a hat
with next to no brim and a high crown. Most hats were feathered.
There is a washing tally in existence of this time
belonging, I think, to the Duke of Rutland, which is very interesting.
It is made of
beech-wood covered with linen, and is divided into fifteen squares. In
the centre of each square there is a circle cut, and in the circle are
numbers.
Over the number is a plate with a pin for pivot in the centre,
a handle to turn, and a hole to expose a number. Above each circle are
the names of the articles in this order:
Ruffs.
Bandes.
Cuffes.
Handkercher.
Cappes.
Shirtes.
Halfshirts.
Boote Hose.
Topps.
Sockes.
Sheetes.
Pillowberes.
Table Clothes.
Napkins.
Towells.
Topps are linen boot-frills, and halfshirts are stomachers.
Bristol paste
diamonds were in great demand, and turquoise rings were very
fashionable.
For the rest, Vandyck's pictures are available to most people, or good
reproductions of them, and those, with a knowledge of how such dress
came into being, are all that can be needed.
Notice the broad collar and deep cuffs. The dress is simple but rich.
The bodice is laced with the same colour as the narrow sash. The hair is
arranged in a series of elaborate curls over the forehead.
There is one new thing you must be prepared to meet in this reign, and
that will best be described by quoting the title of a book written at
this time: 'A Wonder of Wonders, or a Metamorphosis of Fair Faces into
Foul Visages; an invective against black-spotted faces'.
By this you may see at once that every humour was let loose in the
shapes of stars, and moons, crowns, slashes, lozenges, and even a coach
and horses, cut in black silk, ready to be gummed to the faces of the
fair.
Knowing from other histories of such fads that the germ of the matter
lies in a royal indisposition, we look in vain for the conceited history
of the Princess and the Pimple, but no doubt some more earnest enquirer
after truth will hit upon the story - this toy tragedy of the
dressing-table.
For the dress we can do no better than look at the 'Ornatus Muliebris
Anglicanus,' that wonderfully careful compilation by Hollar of all the
dresses in every class of society.
It is interesting to see how the Jacobean costume lost, by degrees, its
formal stiffness, and first fardingale (farthingale) and then ruff vanished.
Jacobean Ladies Hairstyles
Early in the reign the high-dressed hair was abandoned, and to
take its place the hair was dressed so that it was gathered up by the
ears, left parted on the crown, and twisted at the back to hold a plume
or feather. Time went on, and hair-dressing again altered; the hair was
now taken in four parts: first the hair was drawn well back off the
forehead, then the two side divisions were curled neatly and dressed to
fall over the ears, the fourth group of hair was neatly twisted and so
made into a small knot holding the front hair in its place. Later on
came the fringe of small curls, as in the portrait of Queen Henrietta at
Windsor by Vandyck.
We see at first that while the ruff, or rather the rebatoe - that starched
lace high collar - remained, the fardingale having disappeared, left, for
the upper gown, an enormous quantity of waste loose material that had
previously been stretched over the fardingale and parted in front to
show the satin petticoat.
The Wide Loose Gown & Petticoat
From this there sprung, firstly, a wide, loose
gown, open all the way down and tied about the middle with a narrow
sash, the opening showing the boned bodice of the under-dress with its
pointed protruding stomacher, the woman's fashion having retained
the form of the man's jerkin. Below this showed the satin petticoat with
its centre strip or band of embroidery, and the wide border of the same.
In many cases the long hanging sleeves were kept.
Notice the broad collar and deep cuffs. The dress is simple but rich.
The bodice is laced with the same colour as the narrow sash. The hair is
arranged in a series of elaborate curls over the forehead.
Then there came the fall of the rebatoe and the decline of the
protruding figure, and with this the notion of tying back the full upper
skirt to show more plainly the satin petticoat, which was now losing the
centre band of ornament and the border.
With this revolution in dress the disappearing ruff became at first much
lower and then finally vanished, and a lace collar, falling over the
shoulders, took its place.
‡
New Collar Fashion
This gave rise to two distinct fashions in
collars, the one as I have described, the other a collar from the neck,
like a large edition of the man's collar of that time. This collar came
over the shoulders and in two points over the breast, sometimes
completely hiding the upper part of the dress.
The stiff-boned bodice gave place to one more easily cut, shorter, with,
in place of the long point, a series of long strips, each strip
ornamented round the hem.
At this time the sleeves, different from the old-fashioned tight
sleeves, were very full indeed, and the sleeve of the loose over-gown
was made wider in proportion, and was tied across the under-sleeve above
the elbow by a knot of ribbons, the whole ending in a deep cuff of lace.
Then the over-gown disappeared, the bodice became a short jacket laced
in front, openly, so as to show the sleeveless bodice of the same
material and colour as the petticoat; the sleeves were not made so wide,
and they were cut to come just below the elbow, leaving the wrists and
forearm bare.
In winter a lady often wore one of those loose Dutch jackets, round and
full, with sleeves just long enough to cover the under-sleeves, the
whole lined and edged with fur; or she might wear a short circular
fur-lined cape with a small turned-over collar. In summer the little
jacket was often discarded, and the dress was cut very simply but very
low in the bust, and they wore those voluminous silk wraps in common
with the men.
The change of fashion to short full sleeves gave rise to the
turned back cuff of the same material as the sleeve, and some costumes
show this short jacket with its short sleeves with cuffs, while under it
shows the dress with tight sleeves reaching to the wrists where were
linen or lace cuffs, a combination of two fashions.
Part of the lady's equipment now was a big feather fan, and a big fur
muff for winter; also the fashion of wearing long gloves to reach to the
elbow came in with the advent of short sleeves.
Naturally enough there was every variety of evolution from the old
fashion to the new, as the tight sleeves did not, of course, become
immediately wide and loose, but by some common movement, so curious in
the history of such revolutions, the sleeve grew and grew from puffs at
the elbow to wide cuffs, to wide shoulders, until the entire sleeve
became swollen out of all proportion, and the last little pieces of
tightness were removed.
The form of dress with cuffs to the jackets, lacing, sashes, bunches of
ribbon, and looped up skirts, lasted for a great number of years. It was
started by the death of the fardingale, and it lived into the age of
hoops.
These ladies wore shoe-roses upon their shoes, and these bunches
of ribbon, very artificially made up, cost sometimes as much as from
three to thirty pounds a pair, these very expensive roses being
ornamented with jewels. From these we derive the saying, 'Roses worth a
family'.
In the country the women wore red, gray, and black cloth homespun, and
for riding they put on safeguards or outer petticoats. The wide-brimmed
beaver hat was in general wear, and a lady riding in the country would
wear such a hat or a hood and a cloak and soft top boots.
Women's petticoats were called plackets as well as petticoats.
With the careless air that was then adopted by everybody, which was to
grow yet more carefully careless in the reign of Charles II, the hair
was a matter which must have undivided attention, and centuries of tight
dressing had not improved many heads, so that when the loose love-locks
and the dainty tendrils became the fashion, many good ladies and
gentlemen had recourse to the wigmaker.
From this time until but an
hundred years ago, from the periwig bought for Sexton, the fool of
Henry
VIII, down to the scratches and bobs of one's grandfather's
youth, the wigmaker lived and prospered. To-day, more secretly yet more
surely, does the maker of transformations live and prosper, but in the
days when to be wigless was to be undressed the perruquier was a very
great person.
This was the day, then, of satins, loosened hair, elbow sleeves, and
little forehead curls. The stiffness of the older times will pass away,
but it had left its clutch still on these ladies; how far it vanished,
how entirely it left costume, will be seen in the next royal reign, when
Nell Gwynne was favourite and Sir Peter Lely painted her.
These excellent drawings by Hollar need no explanation. They are
included in this book because of their great value as accurate
contemporary drawings of costume.
CHARLES THE FIRST
Reigned twenty-four years: 1625-1649.
Born 1600 Married 1625, Henrietta of France.
This
late Jacobean costume history information consists of Pages 341-355 of the chapter on the
lower mid 17th century dress in the 24 YEAR REIGN era of Charles the First 1625
- 1649 and taken from English Costume by Dion Clayton Calthrop.
The 36 page section consists of a text copy of the book ENGLISH
COSTUME PAINTED & DESCRIBED BY DION CLAYTON CALTHROP. Visuals,
drawings and painted fashion plates in the book have a charm of their own and are
shown amid the text. The book covers both male and female dress history of
over 700 years spanning the era 1066-1830.
This page is about dress in
the reign of the Stuart King, Charles I 1625-1649.
For the Introduction to this book see this
introduction written by Dion Clayton Calthrop. I have adjusted
the images so they can be used for colouring
worksheets where pupils add some costume/society facts. My comments are in italics.
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This late Jacobean costume history information consists of Pages 341-355 of the chapter on the
lower mid 17th century dress in the 24 YEAR REIGN era of Charles the First 1625
- 1649 and taken from English Costume by Dion Clayton Calthrop.
Such a change has come over the doublet as to make it hardly the same
garment; the little slashes have become two or three wide cuts, the
sleeves are wide and loose with, as a rule, one big opening on the
inside of the arm, with this opening embroidered round.
